No credit card required
Browse credit cards from a variety of issuers to see if there's a better card for you.
Hey all, been reading here and there as of the last month and realized I did a few things well and others incorrectly. I had zero credit reporting until 2010 ( i rented, did not have any need for CC, had high income > 150K ) and preferred to live by old rule of if I dont have the money for it I cant afford it.
So then the company I worked for went under and I found myself quickly w/o income, incurred 4 hospital bills I didnt pay totaling ~1.500 which went into collections and have been resold 3x now. i think Phoenix owns the debt. and they keep adding it every month as a new debt.
I also had a Verizon bill go into collections & was told to pay $550 by a debt collection agency , so I paid it off to the amunt they said. They told me by telephone that was the amount owed. Well I pulled my credit report and see it was $750 but now shows as settled in full for less then the amount. Will it help me to try and pay the difference for VZW to delete it? Will they?
I have a student loan for $2500 that showed up for the first time in 2010 (I finshed college in 1997!, it somehow wasnt paid and I never bothered to check credit reports until recently) It was supposed to have been paid as part of a consolidated loan i took from a bank back then but it wasnt ... I paid the bank loan off an no longer have the docs for it. So it 2010 my tax refund somehow got yanked and applied to it 10+ years later.
When i started this was a year ago and began with a small car loan from chrysler capital at a rape rate of 23% just to establish credit begin building/fixing and have paid in full early every month.
I have gone from a 492 fico to now a 550 /547/550 exp/trans/equi which is a great start. I also just ordered a Capital One Secured card and put $225 deposit against it.
My question to those folks with the patience and desire to help is:
What should I do next to continue increasing my fico? Aside from the obvious of paying bills on time and perhaps asking for a PFD on the medical bills (they are only 2 years old and wont fall off soon)?
Is there anything I can do to get rid of that ridic student loan that appeared 10+ years after the fact, showed as a C/O and then paid in full for 8 months and finally doesnt report anything again?
Vzw wireless seems to be pretty tight and i am not sure they will goodwill the amount especially since the SOB collector had me pay less then the full amount.
Is a 650+ doable in the next 12 months?
@Anonymous wrote:Hey all, been reading here and there as of the last month and realized I did a few things well and others incorrectly. I had zero credit reporting until 2010 ( i rented, did not have any need for CC, had high income > 150K ) and preferred to live by old rule of if I dont have the money for it I cant afford it.
So then the company I worked for went under and I found myself quickly w/o income, incurred 4 hospital bills I didnt pay totaling ~1.500 which went into collections and have been resold 3x now. i think Phoenix owns the debt. and they keep adding it every month as a new debt.
I also had a Verizon bill go into collections & was told to pay $550 by a debt collection agency , so I paid it off to the amunt they said. They told me by telephone that was the amount owed. Well I pulled my credit report and see it was $750 but now shows as settled in full for less then the amount. Will it help me to try and pay the difference for VZW to delete it? Will they?
I have a student loan for $2500 that showed up for the first time in 2010 (I finshed college in 1997!, it somehow wasnt paid and I never bothered to check credit reports until recently) It was supposed to have been paid as part of a consolidated loan i took from a bank back then but it wasnt ... I paid the bank loan off an no longer have the docs for it. So it 2010 my tax refund somehow got yanked and applied to it 10+ years later.
When i started this was a year ago and began with a small car loan from chrysler capital at a rape rate of 23% just to establish credit begin building/fixing and have paid in full early every month.
I have gone from a 492 fico to now a 550 /547/550 exp/trans/equi which is a great start. I also just ordered a Capital One Secured card and put $225 deposit against it.
My question to those folks with the patience and desire to help is:
What should I do next to continue increasing my fico? Aside from the obvious of paying bills on time and perhaps asking for a PFD on the medical bills (they are only 2 years old and wont fall off soon)?
Is there anything I can do to get rid of that ridic student loan that appeared 10+ years after the fact, showed as a C/O and then paid in full for 8 months and finally doesnt report anything again?
Vzw wireless seems to be pretty tight and i am not sure they will goodwill the amount especially since the SOB collector had me pay less then the full amount.
Is a 650+ doable in the next 12 months?
As soon as the Cap One card reports you will get a score boost. When that happens, apply for a second, unsecured Cap One card. If they deny you for now , don't worry, just go open an SDFCU account and apply for a secured card with them. Once the second card reports you will get another score boost - go back to Cap One and re-apply for an unsecured card. Once you have three accounts established you should 'garden' them and let them grow. Use the cards as much as you can and PIF often, at least twice a month. Ask for credit line increases after 4 months, and each month after that. After twelve months apply for an unsecured card from SDFCU, and if they approve you then scose the secured card with them. Do the same with the Cap One secured card. If they won't let you have a third account, close the secured account and re-apply immediately.
After getting your three revolving accounts established, refi that car loan. You should be able to qualify for single digit rates at that point.
Thank you so much Norman for the advice , definetly sounds like a solid approach.
Do you have any insight on what I could/should with the Verizon Wireless setlled for less then full amount ? Had I known it was 750 I would have just paid the full amount so it would at least look legitimate settlement.
Also the student loan is another one... I am not sure how to look at it . Its listed as my oldest account also .... but with a negative.
how it appears on my report with one big red, then green paid and listed as a collection?
@Anonymous wrote:Thank you so much Norman for the advice , definetly sounds like a solid approach.
Do you have any insight on what I could/should with the Verizon Wireless setlled for less then full amount ? Had I known it was 750 I would have just paid the full amount so it would at least look legitimate settlement.
Also the student loan is another one... I am not sure how to look at it . Its listed as my oldest account also .... but with a negative.
how it appears on my report with one big red, then green paid and listed as a collection?
A computer will not care about settled in full for less human eyes may question it but its no worse in Ficos eyes as if you had PIF. I would not be negotiating to pay the difference its legally settled so there is nothing due. I would move on to the GW letter asking for its removal. http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Rebuilding-Your-Credit/GW-letter-Q-amp-A-Examples-and-GW-Success-Stories/td-p/1573680
Thanks for the link and advice gdale6 .
The student loan reports as late 90+ days in June 2012, and then is reports paid until August 2013. Aside from the fact it *should* have been paid during a home eq refi in 1997 , it shows *now* as an installment account with a negative indicator because of the collection. Is this actually harming my score much ? Is it worth trying to get removed?
@Anonymous wrote:Thanks for the link and advice @gdale6 .
The student loan reports as late 90+ days in June 2012, and then is reports paid until August 2013. Aside from the fact it *should* have been paid during a home eq refi in 1997 , it shows *now* as an installment account with a negative indicator because of the collection. Is this actually harming my score much ? Is it worth trying to get removed?
If its not got much time left to run leave it alone, if its got significant time to run then a GW letter asking that the lates be removed would be in order. The DoFD is what controls how long it can run on your report, I would look up the time limits as set forth in the Higher Education Act to see if it can even still be reported. Good luck
Thank you again.
I also see that one of the medical bills in collections is reporting 2x for the same bill on Equifax to two different collections (one is Gold Key and the other is Pheonix) .
My intent is to dispute the older collection owner and just try to work out the PFD with the current debt owner. I do know that the debt cant be reported by two different collectors concurrently.
@Anonymous wrote:Thank you again.
I also see that one of the medical bills in collections is reporting 2x for the same bill on Equifax to two different collections (one is Gold Key and the other is Pheonix) .
My intent is to dispute the older collection owner and just try to work out the PFD with the current debt owner. I do know that the debt cant be reported by two different collectors concurrently.
Correct. Good plan.